Our next meeting will be the Christmas Party, Monday, December 3rd. See Treasurer’s Report for information.

Our first meeting in 2013 will be Monday, April 8th at 7:00 p.m. at Jack Tate’s, 22144 Morley.

President’s Report:

Hopefully this newsletter finds each of you in good health and hopefully when you receive this the Tigers are still playing.

Pension Tax:

The bill which would exempt police and fire retirees from the state tax on pensions remains stalled in the State House; no movement is expected on it anytime soon.

Chapter 21:

As many of you have heard, the city has taken over administration of Chapter 21. This past summer when it came time to vote for new pension trustees, only one fire retiree put his name in and after trying to get a police retiree to take the fire spot, the city invoked section 17.4 (A) of the City Charter that says that if there are insufficient retirees willing to serve, then the city shall take over administration of the pension. Chapter 21 is over 100% funded and it is in the city’s interest to take care of the funds since by law they would have to make up any shortfall. When there are no more retirees or beneficiaries, the remaining funds would revert to the city.

Health Care:

Vice President Jim Sarb has been in contact with the folks at City Hall and as of now there are no changes anticipated for retiree health care. We will have to keep an eye on what happens in Washington after the elections as Medicare Advantage plans such as what we are under are reportedly going to be cut when the Affordable Health Care (Obama Care) law takes full effect in 2014.

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Fire Department News:

As expected, most of the senior members retired just before the contract expired in June. As a result, many firefighters have attained rank and hold command positions and there are several openings at the bottom. It is reported that the department is 15 members short of the minimum manning requirement that is in the City Charter. One reason the city has given for not hiring is the length of time that there was no chief and the latest is that Human Resources has been slow to put together an eligibility list due to the changes in that department.

Some of what has gone on in Human Resources is that Val Murphy Goodrich was fired by the Civil Service Commission and just in the past few weeks Al Wozniak was named Director.

Another thought on why the city has not hired the additional people is the rumored consolidation with Melvindale. It is thought that the city would take on the Melvindale firefighters and use them against the staffing mandate. If the finances work out for both cities, the consolidation will most likely take place. The City of Dearborn will take on the firefighters from Melvindale and their equipment and would provide fire and EMS service to Melvindale on a contract basis. Several area departments are entering into these types of contracts and are merging and developing new mutual aid pacts. One of the incentives for doing so is that the governor has tied a lot of state funding to inter-city agreements that share resources.

Since our last newsletter the mayor has named Joe Murray to be Fire Chief. Murray who has seven years on the job was recently the Secretary of Local 412.

The police settled their contract over the summer taking several concessions. The fire contract also expired June 30th but to date there has been no meaningful discussions towards reaching a deal.

Around Town:

The Mayor and City Council went ahead with the plans to buy a building for a new City Hall. They bought the ADP building on Michigan just west of the police station and the current City Hall will be sold to Art Space. Art Space is a nonprofit group that provides low cost housing to aspiring artists. Detractors of the deal point out that there is no requirement that those who move into the building be artists so what it ends up being is low income housing.

The plan to create Special Assessment Districts to fund the city pools died when it was found that there was little support for paying an assessment for the pools.

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Construction has begun on a new train station near Michigan and Brady with an entrance to Greenfield Village. This new station is part of a plan to put in High Speed Rail between Detroit and Chicago.

Treasurer’s Report:

Fall is here once again and that means the annual Christmas dinner is just around the corner. The information is below. If anyone has any questions regarding the treasury or status of their membership, please feel free to contact me at 313-231-2288 or via

Our condolences go out to the families of our members who have passed away since our last newsletter.

Fire:

Spouse:

Violet Ramm 6/26/12 Robert 1949-75

Police:

William Schauppner 5/10 1952-1993

Albert Noce 7/23 1955-1985

Lawrence Young 8/16 1949-1978

Garrison Clayton 9/16 1942-1966

Joseph Maceri 10/5 1953-1987

Spouses:

Joanne Hughes 4/10 Jim 1952-1989

Dorothy Parchert 8/28 Karl 1946-1976

Court:

Virginia Sabotka 8/29 Judge 1977-2005

Police & Fire News:

Retirements:

Fire:

J. Beutner 3/31 1999

D. Baker 4/1 1987

J. Lange 4/29 1989

L. DiShaw 5/26 1992

T. Prokop 6/5 1980

P. Dowell 6/7 1988

M. Mattern 6/17 1984

L. Jones 6/17 1988

M. Shantz 6/26 1985

S. Coleman 6/28 1985

A. Zawinski 6/28 1993

J. Sheehan 6/29 1985

M. Bajjey 6/29 1985

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Police:

R. Massic 5/14 1991

B. Ashby 6/16 1990

L. Cosenza 6/19 1990

G. Zemickas 6/19 1999

R. Farris 6/19 1985

M. Tobias 7/31 1988

The Police Retirement Party is at Park Place Thursday, December 6, 2012. The party starts at 6:00 p.m. with dinner at 7:00 p.m. Tickets are available from Nancy Hamood at the chief’s office at 313-943-2236.

At the September meeting, I reported that we had three students apply for scholarships: Jeremy Dochenetz (paramedic), grandson of Ronald Bettley (F.D.); Paul Monberg (criminal justice), son of Paul Monberg, Sr., (F.D.) and Erik Peterson (criminal justice), grandson of Dave Peterson (P.D.). $300.00 was awarded to each.

POAD President and Vice President Gregg “Augie” Allgeier and Mike Ball were in attendance. Augie stated the police department contract was settled last summer. There were no changes to health care or pensions for active members. The contract is for three years, no raises, gave up holiday pay and gave up some sick pay. The contract was passed before legislative mandates kicked in, saving step raises. The overtime reserve officer clause was suspended for the life of the contract and a part-time patrol officer program was agreed to through the millage expiration in 2017. A new minimum manning number was agreed to at 180 total sworn, with no less than 140 sworn POAD. The patrol division will work 12 hr. shifts. New hires will have health saving accounts. Public employees will also pay 20% of health care costs.

Augie stated the POAM is urging members to vote Democratic in Michigan as the Lansing attitude seems to be to get as much from public employee unions as possible.

Mike Ball spoke about a fundraiser for Officer Chip Harrison who was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident. He will be off work and in extended rehab for an undetermined amount of time. The members voted to give $1,000 to the fundraiser.

Jack Tate who generously donates his club room for meetings is now the volunteer head of the Dearborn Historical Museum. They no longer have any paid employees and he is looking for volunteers to help keep the museum open. There are many jobs available; computer, maintenance, special events and assorted others. Jack’s phone number is 313-492-1338.

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The museum is publishing a second edition of Dearborn Tales and Karen Ball is looking for police and fire stories. She can be contacted by e-mail at madamlazonga@hotmail.com or 313-278-5049.

The meeting was adjourned and refreshments were served.

I contacted Joey Thorington, President of IAFF Local 412 and asked if he had any info for the newsletter. He sent me the following.

These are unprecedented economic times which are politically more important for police, fire, public employees, teachers, unions and the middle class than ever before. These upcoming elections and ballot proposals can help solidify or decimate the middle class in this state and great country. I realize there are many important personal motives for voting for or against a certain political party or issue. Religion, abortion, gun control and welfare are just some examples of hot topics that politicians tout as why you should or shouldn’t vote for them. However, in this election cycle, labor must be one of the most important persuasive reasons to vote a certain way. Big banks and Wall Street are to blame for this economic crash and yet public employee’s salaries, benefits and pensions continue to take unfair/unjust blame for the economic problems. We are being used as scapegoats to fix financial problems and are being forced into making unfair sacrifices while those who caused the problems are not making sacrifices at all and some are even profiting on our backs. This election cycle, I ask that you make labor a major component in making your voting decisions. The Dearborn Firefighters and the Michigan Professional Firefighter’s Union have both endorsed which direction to vote on certain ballot initiatives and which candidates from both parties are labor friendly. I ask that you visit the Dearborn Firefighters webpage at www.dearbornff.org to see the endorsements and support them with your vote. We have already experienced new pension taxes, hits to union rights and protections and unjust labor legislative proposals in congress. We need your vote to protect the middle class in America and stop these unjust attacks now.

Our own Rich Margittay was in the news. He was featured in a special Today Show investigative report on carnival games scams. The result was a telling expose of some of the popular midway games. Rich said he was glad he did the piece but he thought they could have talked about organized crime and the huge amount of money they take from the public.

Gary Marchetti had a nice article in the Free Press. He is a founding member of the Metro Detroit Police and Firefighters Pipes and Drums. In the last ten years they have been called upon thirty times to perform at the funerals of public safety officers killed in the line of duty. The group has twenty-seven members and has expanded to include fundraisers and other events. They have organized as a non-profit and accept donations to defray the cost of the uniforms and equipment. Gary states all the members are public safety officers and are present to honor our brothers and sisters who have fallen in the line of duty.

Dearborn Music after sixty years is moving to Michigan and Military in the old Pier One store next to the new upscale Goodwill store that is now open. Wednesday is senior day.

Two new hookah bars are opening in west Dearborn; one in West Village Commons across from Bryant Library and one in the Gateway Plaza, Michigan and Military, across from Sacred Heart. This makes a total of four hookah bars in the west end.

The Audette Office Supply store at Michigan and Outer Drive closed and after remodeling has re-opened as the Salon 360.

Dearborn High School is using their new football field where the tennis courts were. There is a new electronic scoreboard, press box, bleachers and refreshment stand.

Finally, two Mexican detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Rodriguez.

“How was he killed?” asked one of the detectives. “He was shot with a golf gun!” “A golf gun!…what is a golf gun?” “I don’t know, but it made a hole in Juan!”